Learn the Ins and Outs of Experian
Experian is officially known as Experian PLC, which stands for public limited company. It turns out that Experian is actually the largest of the major credit bureaus overall. A credit bureau creates credit reports as well as scores for creditors and companies to enable them to assess an applicant’s worthiness for credit.
This credit reporting agency not only collects information but gathers it on more than 1 billion individuals and businesses in the world. In the United States alone, there are over 200 million U.S. consumers as well as 25 million businesses that are monitored by this consumer credit bureau. Similar to the other credit reporting bureaus, Experian is required by the United States government to give consumers AKA us at least one free credit report each year.
Mission Statement
Do you have a credit score that is less than ideal for you? To get the credit score you want, it helps to have a great history with credit. The more positive credit points you have, the more chance you have of being accepted for a line of credit. To start with, when applying for things such as a credit card or a lease they come up as a credit inquiry that is put onto a person’s credit report. Other factors can lower your credit score such as late or missed bill payments. These can be a sign you’re struggling to pay back the money you’ve borrowed, which does make lenders hesitate. But if you go 6 months and have no late payments your Experian credit score will rise.
The applications for credit in today’s world stay on your record for 12 months. Also, too many of these credit applications look bad on your Experian score overall. As far as new accounts go, too many new accounts can make lenders think you’re living off credit. Avoid opening too many accounts and you will be able to increase your score.
Products
Experian offers services to consumers, small businesses and larger businesses. On their site, they offer reports and scores, including a free credit report, other credit score services, credit lock, fraud alert, credit monitoring, a financial profile service, 3 Bureau credit report services and much more. According to Experian, a good credit score is typically 700 or more. On the same note, an outstanding credit score is one of 800 or more. Generally speaking, most people have a credit score that ranges from 600 and 750. The factors stated by Experian that have the most effect on a person’s credit score include payment history, the utilization rate of credit, the age, number, and type of accounts, a person’s total amount of debt, public records like filing for bankruptcy, any new credit accounts that have been opened in recent times and the number of credit inquiries on a person’s report.
Now let’s talk about FICO. A FICO score is the most commonly utilized credit score. FICO stands for Fair Isaac Corporation and it’s a model of scoring. The scoring model FICO is used to predict the chance that someone will pay or will not pay their debt and only uses credit report information to make such predictions. The reports you get from Experian are credit account details. Credit account details with Experian have information that was sent to Experian by the banks or creditors. Additionally, credit inquiries consist of noncredit and credit inquiries that are made by the banks as well. Things that can change your FICO score with Experian include paying off loans, opening or closing an account or maxing out a credit card. Ultimately, your scores may change whenever a lender reports updated activity to Experian. Some banks send reports to Experian every 1 to 2 months.
Experian offers a business credit score called Intelliscore Plus. This business score typically ranges from 0 to 100 with a score of 76 or more being considered a good score. For businesses, Experian makes use of factors such as business credit history, industry data, legal and public filings in order to determine the proper score. Overall Experian uses more than 800 factors to determine the credit score of a business. There will be a consideration of a business’s trade history with suppliers as well as vendors. The agency will look at how and when you pay vendors, as well as how long of a history you have with those suppliers and vendors. When it comes to lenders and suppliers, making full payments on time is crucial to having a great credit score. Early payments have an equally positive effect as paying bills on time. Experian also considers how a business utilizes credit. When you’re looking to improve your business’ overall credit score the best practice is to keep the utilization of credit low. Low credit utilization is generally around less than 30 or 40%.
History
From a technical standpoint, Experian is a credit bureau. The credit bureau is essentially a company that not only collects but sells your information about how you handle credit. A person’s credit history is established by a record of credit used over an extended period of time. A credit report is a document that every individual has. By obtaining your credit report you will see financial information focusing on your history of payment obligations such as car payments, utility bills, home mortgages and credit cards.
So, what exactly is a credit report? A credit report includes a listing of any company, organization or place that has inquired about you, whether good or bad in terms of risk for credit. A credit report lists all the credits you have opened or currently have open. Credit lines can include anything from mortgages, credit cards, loans, etc.
There are three major credit reporting agencies within the United States. Every year, each credit reporting agency is required to give a person a free credit report. The three credit reporting agencies include Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. A person can also request to receive all three credit reports at the same time or spread out the requests over the course of a year.
Nowadays a credit score is something that can make your life easy or extraordinarily hard.
If you are deemed as untrustworthy, then convincing a company to lend you money for things such as buying a home or a vehicle or even renting an apartment will be challenging. What a bad credit score shows people in today’s world is that you are unpredictable and unreliable. Now there are many reasons why a credit score would be low, and it’s not singled down to a person being unreliable and untrustworthy. Circumstances such as a divorce, loss of a business or even medical bills that have gone unpaid can cause someone’s credit score to drop significantly. A credit score is a three-digit number that reflects the credit history detailed by an individual’s credit report. A credit score typically ranges from 300 to 850.
Contacting TransUnion
As stated earlier, TransUnion is another one of the major credit bureaus. Identical to Experian, you are able to file a dispute, initiate inquiries about your credit report and much more by contacting TransUnion customer service. There are a few options when it comes to getting in contact with this credit bureau. The ways to initiate a dispute or get into contact with Transunion is by mail or over the phone. Overall the most popular method of contacting TransUnion is through the online service.
How to Report an Error on Experian
Experian does not only offer services such as obtaining credit scores and reports, the bureau is also able to be contacted if a red flag or error is found on a report. This is called filing a dispute. To file a dispute, go to the Experian website or contact the number provided on your credit report from Experian. There is also a way to dispute without the use of a credit report and this is by sending a dispute letter to the National Consumer Assistance Center by the Experian Bureau.
Summary
Do you want to improve your credit score? If you do, you want to check your report. To do this go on the Experian website and request a credit report. If you have already requested a copy of your report this year you may have to pay to access the information. On the report, you will see scores and the factors that are affecting those scores closely. Now, this is just a starting point. Once you start making changes that are suggested in your report, it will take some time for those changes to go into effect. This is because financial institutions must make reports to the credit bureau before a score is affected.
In general, certain factors of credit scores tend to have more importance than others. The main important score factors include a person’s credit use ratios as well as payment history. These two factors alone can sometimes make up 70% of that person’s credit score, which is a lot. If your score is low, it will only increase based off of payment patterns that are consistent and reported by the banks. Here are a few suggestions of patterns that can get you started with improving your Experian credit score.
Credit balance and payment history contribute to an entire 70 percent of your credit score according to Experian. This is a lot. A credit balance is the total amount you owe across all your accounts. A high credit balance can wear your score down. Paying off debt can help to increase your score dramatically. Available balance is the credit available to you. Maxing out your credit cards and having too little credit available can show you’re struggling to manage your debt, thus dropping your credit score down. To make lenders less nervous and to bring your score up, find a way to bring down the amount of debt you owe on your credit card. Also, make sure you’re not too near to your credit limits. Defaulted accounts are accounts lenders have closed because you were unable to keep to the terms of the agreement and can be detrimental to your score.
If you fail to uphold an agreement with one lender another lender is going to be really unsure of taking you on as a customer. One way to combat this is to register on the Electoral roll. This helps because a person’s address, as well as public records are another score determiner. Public record information like bankruptcies, voluntary arrangements, and county court judgments will knock that score down, unfortunately. Experian has a few words of advice for anyone looking to boost their credit score. 1. Pay your bills on time, every single time. 2. Make your cell phone and utility bill payment on time, every time!
Learn More about Credit Bureaus.